Picture: AnnaliseArt / Pixabay

Over 90 applications, 88 of which have already been approved – this is the first annual balance sheet of the Federal Network Agency in terms of campus networks. It expects growing interest and many more companies to set up their own private 5G network.

The starting signal was given on November 21st, 2019: From that day on, property owners and tenants could apply to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) for the allocation of up to 100 MHz bandwidth in the 3.6 GHz spectrum in order to set up their own mobile network on their premises – indoors and/or outdoors. These private campus networks or “non-public networks” (NPN) are arousing increasing interest. Initially, only a few large companies, such as BASF, submitted such requests, but after the first year the regulatory authority has now reported a total of 93 applications received. 88 have already been approved, five are still in the processing phase, none has been rejected.

A recent study by ABI Research underlines that interest in private networks will increase even more in the future. According to the study, worldwide sales of network equipment for private 5G communication networks are expected to rise to 64 billion dollars by 2030. Around half of this will be accounted for by industrial manufacturing, energy production (including oil and gas extraction, coal mining) and logistics. Demand will be driven on the one hand by the increasing demands for automation and digitalisation, fuelled by the Covid 19 pandemic, which has highlighted the benefits of remote control and maintenance. Furthermore, the adoption of the 3GPP standard 5G Release 16 has given the market the necessary security to develop and bring to market components and devices suitable for industrial use, according to the researchers of ABI Research.

Interest across all industries

The applicants include medium-sized companies as well as industrial giants, such as Airbus, Audi, BASF, Mercedes Benz or ThyssenKrupp, and research institutions and universities or their spin-offs, including Campus Schwarzwald of Reutlingen University, Fraunhofer IPT and IIS, inIT/TH OWL, Campus Melaten of RWTH Aachen University, TU Kaiserslautern, University of Stuttgart and many more. In addition, network operators and suppliers such as Huawei, LS telcom, Telefónica, T-Systems and Verizon, manufacturers of industrial equipment such as Bosch, Phoenix Contact and SEW-Eurodrive, and last but not least, development companies for commercial and industrial sites such as the business development agency in the district of Harburg for the Buchholz i.d.N. site or Wista Management, which is responsible for the Berlin-Adlershof Technology Park. The BNetzA provides a list of those licensees who have agreed to the publication here (PDF download, german).

Associations emphasise importance for the industry

In a joint communication, the associations of the automotive industry, the chemical industry, the electrical industry and the mechanical and plant engineering industry – VCI, VDA, VDMA and ZVEI – have emphasised the great importance of the new mobile communication technology for their sectors. The possibility of operating 5G networks themselves and thus gaining their own experience and testing and developing new applications is of enormous importance for German industry, they said.

Source: Siemens

“Industrial 5G campus networks are developing completely new fields of application with automation technology, for example in flexible, networked production or the monitoring of systems. For the electrical industry, the diverse fields of application are future-proof“.

Herbert Wegmann, General Manager at Siemens Chairman of the ZVEI Steering Committee Industrial Communication

Industrial 5G is still undergoing standardisation and is only just being brought to market maturity in automation technology. Nevertheless, the great interest in campus network licences shows the great potential and underlines the opportunity to develop Germany into a lead market and leading provider for industrial mobile radio-based applications.

Source: Kion
 

“The high security and low latency of 5G campus networks coupled with the scalability of computing power in the cloud drastically reduces development efforts. Especially real-time applications or other very computationally intensive systems, such as image processing or AI algorithms, benefit from this”.

Ansgar Bergmann, Project Manager CTO, KION Group/Still and member of the VDMA 5G User Group

The associations point out that local campus networks allow companies to have full control over their own data, as well as customised coverage of the company premises and a network infrastructure that is independent of other standards, such as WLAN. This opens up great potential for technological development. Last but not least, 5G contributes to the development of the technical basis for Industrie 4.0.

Source: VDA

“For companies in the automotive industry, 5G campus networks enable the networking of plants and systems in production, thus creating a new, very efficient form of flexibility”.

Dr. Joachim Damasky, Managing Director of the VDA

 

The VCI sees 5G campus networks as an important prerequisite for driving the digital transformation in the chemical industry. In a pilot project, for example, BASF is setting up a test installation in a production environment to pilot 5G in different application areas. Various partners will also be involved in the project.

Source: BASF

“The entire process industry is breaking new ground with 5G. Close cooperation with partners is therefore particularly important in order to learn continuously from each other. This will enable us to fully exploit the potential of the technology in the future”.

Martin Schwibach, Industrial Connectivity & Industrial Mobility at BASF and committee member of VCI for digitisation

Ultimately, the associations see the different equipment and operator models as an important driver for innovation in the 5G sector. The fact that companies have the possibility to set up and operate their 5G mobile networks themselves or to plan and operate them via public network operators and the network equipment industry or to use mixed models, provides for a competition that makes an important contribution to the successful establishment of 5G technology in Germany.

Progressing development

The Federal Network Agency points out that applications for own local frequencies can be made purely online. For our german readers, FUENF-G.de has already reported on the requirements in the article “How to obtain licences for a 5G campus network“, and we have developed an exclusive fee calculator for 5G campus licences.

In the meantime, products for the industrial use of 5G are also increasing, as shown in the 5G-Devices report of the GSA. Together with our cooperation partner RSConnect, we have compiled an overview of 5G routers for industrial use in a series of devices that will be available soon.

For companies interested in their own private 5G network, FUENF-G.de and RSConnect offer a german-spoken online seminar: “Private 5G Networks – Understanding Campus Networks“, on December 15th from 10:00 h to 15:30 h. Details and registration form can be found here.